[jksander]

MARCH 24, 1953 . . . Our General Manager Mike Quirk stunned the baseball world and Cubs fans by signing 21-year-old (and 1951 Rookie of the Year Award Winning) center fielder Willie Mays to play for our club! He’s going to make $85,000 this year, though he enters arbitration following the season. He brings great morale to the team, and as a manager, I’m pleased to see ownership and upper management putting real thought into how to improve our chances as a team.

APRIL 13, 1953 . . . Opening Day is finally almost upon us! The Cubs went 13-17 during Spring Training games, but now for the first time games actually count and the fans are really excited to see what we can do. I have been notified by Mike Quirk that we’re still building for the future so expectations are that I have this team playing .500 ball through the season. But I’m optimistic that we can surprise some people and stay competitive enough to make things stressful for the perennial NL leaders. We play the Reds in a two-game series at Wrigley starting tomorrow afternoon, with Bob Rush expected to start tomorrow and Paul Minner on Wednesday.

APRIL 14, 1953 . . . The weather cooperated for our opening day matchup, with partly cloudy, mid-50s temperatures at first pitch, with a strong wind blowing out to right field. I’m told just shy of 20,000 fans turned out to watch, and fans got a great start from Bob Rush early, and a Willie Mays homer in the bottom of the third put us up 2-0! Mays had a spectacular diving save at center in the top of the fourth to kaep the Reds from scoring, getting Rush out of the first jam he’d seen on the day and getting the fans on their feet. And in the bottom of the fifth he hit another towering homer, this time a solo one, to make it 3-0! The Reds got on the board in the top of the sixth with two outs, thanks to an Andy Seminick double, but Rush kept it from getting any worse, pitching out of the jam as the Reds stranded their runnar and we remained up 3-1. We went three up, three down in the bottom of the sixth and I brought in reliever Bob Kelly to pitch in the top of the seventh.

Kelly managed to get all three outs in five pitches in the seventh, but came in to pitch in the eighth with us still holding the 3-1 lead. He gave up a pair of hits in the eighth but the Reds were unable to do anything with them. In the bottom of the eighth, Ernie Banks got on base with a single and then got to second on a passed ball. With two outs, Frank Baumholtz came in to pinch hit for Clyde McCullough, hitting it to deep left but the Reds came up with the catch, sending us to the ninth with a two run lead. Semnick got on base with a hit to start the inning, but Hobie Landrith couldn’t get the ball out of the infield, allowing us to turn a quick double play to put us within an out of victory! They again couldn’t get the ball out of the infield and we were able to take the win, 3-1!

It was a nice way to start the season. Mays was by far the hero of the day with his two homers and three RBIs. Bob Rush got the win with six innings pitched, striking out three against five hits and two walks, giving up the only run of the game and throwing 100 pitches. Bob Kelly got the three-inning save, giving up just two hits while throwing 25 pitches. In his Cubs’ debut, 22-year-old shortstop Ernie Banks reached base twice, once with a single and once on a fielding error, but he was left stranded both times.

APRIL 15, 1953 . . . Hank Sauer got the scoring going today against the Reds in the bottom of the first, when a bloop single to left drove in Willie Mays from third to put us up 1-0. The Reds then walked their way into a bases loaded situation with just one out, and we aimed to run it up. Clyde McCullough hit it into deep right and drove in two more runs, and just like that we had a 3-0 lead. The Reds got on the board in the third thanks to a solo homer by left-fielder Jim Greengrass, and then in the top of the fifth our pitcher Waren Hacker got into a jam, loaded the bases and allowed the tying run to score.

Ernie Banks hit a sacrifice fly to center with just one out and men on first and third, driving in a run to put us back in the lead, and then Randy Jackson hit a triple that drove in another, putting us up 5-3 at the end of five. After his rough fifth inning, Hacker had an excellent game, staying in the game and keeping our lead secure. We loaded the bases in the bottom of the eighth, but didn’t add any runs, leading to a ninth inning decision for me -- I had relievers Fred Baczewski and Bob Kelly warmed up in the bullpen, but decided to let Hacker stay in with a shot at the complete game. A fly-out and two K’s later and he’d retired the side, completing the 5-3 victory having given up seven hits against 10 K’s and only three walks. Ernie Banks, our top prospect, drew a walk and drove in the winning run with his sac fly, so he’s definitely becoming popular with the fans. In total we out-hit the Reds today 13-7, and everybody but Banks and Hacker hit.

We play a game on the road tomorrow against St. Louis before our Friday off-day before a three game weekend series at Cincinnati. We’ll then return to Chicago next week for a pair of games against the Milwaukee Braves and a trio against St. Louis.